It is a bit ashaming to have two absolutely favourite songs and not exactly knowing what they are about....

So, what do you think?

The unbearable is that everything's bearable. - J. A.Rimbaud

This Is Not America was written for soundtrack of the film Falcon And The Snowman. I doubt there is much of an interetation to the song apart from that.

Bahnhof Zum Bahnhof

I once wrote a kick-ass, line-by-line interpretation of "The Man Who Sold The World," about a journey of self-discovery in spite of those who would tell you that they know the way, but, sadly, it has been archived.

I don't know if I could re-create it. Certainly not at the moment.

WW

I can't keep my fingers out of any pies!

There's one surviving interpretation of "The Man Who Sold The World" with reference to what it may have meant to Kurt Cobain. It can be found here.

Get Bowie Downunder

The most widely accepted "interpretation" of TMWSTW is that it was based on the nusery rhyme:

Yesterday upon a stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasnt there again today
How I wish he'd go away

or something very close to that.

JACCI

Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head.

Thank you very much.....hm, but I think I don`'t see the connection, really... am I too dumb?

The unbearable is that everything's bearable. - J. A.Rimbaud

I think the relationship between the "man who wasn't there" nursery rhyme and "The Man Who Sold The World" is solely in those few lyrics that resemble the nursery rhyme, i.e. being on stairs and "not being there," so to speak. The themes in TMWSTW are more developed and involved. While Bowie may have taken a nursery rhyme that sounded sort of nifty and had some interesting concepts, the nursery rhyme tells us little about the meaning of the song.

WW

I like beer with my air.

TMWSTW this is a rejection of Christs view of the world in favour of Nietzsche`s view of the world. TMWSTW not the man who came to save the world.

In reply to:

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I think the relationship between the "man who wasn't there" nursery rhyme and "The Man Who Sold The World" is solely in those few lyrics that resemble the nursery rhyme,

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As an interesting note, this is not the only time Bowie has used a nursery rhyme in his songs. Like many of you probably knew, the ending of Ashes To Ashes takes from the nursery rhyme My mamma said/that I never should/play with the gypsies in the woods.

"Because we are paranoid" - Kraftwerk

And Slip Away borrows from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

"MAKING LOVE WITH HIS EGO!"